The Consumers Council of Canada

is committed to good governance, excellence in research and listening to consumers. Its consultative, fact-based approach provides the foundation for its engagement of consumer issues through consumer representation.

The Council works to improve consumers’ ability to navigate marketplaces affecting everyday life.

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experience to share?

Help us learn from your marketplace experiences, problems and complaints. We'll protect your privacy. We don’t act for individuals. But sharing can help you think and will bring you knowledge. You’ll help us help all consumers.

Council Annual Report of Activities highlights achievements, goals

Consumers Council of Canada had a busy 2016-17 and has plans for a more active year to come. This report – just out – provides a window into how consumers and stakeholders in consumer protection can get more involved.

Consumers want home energy efficiency programs to be problem free

Join us in September to learn about and discuss the state of consumer rights in Canada

Consumers Council of Canada, Option consommateurs, Public Interest Advocacy Centre and Union des consommateurs are partners to host an exciting 2-day conference, September 19-20, 2017, in Ottawa, to discuss and analyze the state of the Canadian consumer. As well, the event will facilitate a discussion about the challenges of consumer advocacy in Canada.

Council efforts contribute to cellphone unlocking victory for Canadian consumers

The Consumers Council of Canada offered its views on improvements to the Wireless Services Code at hearings by the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. The Commission listened and decided cellphone locking is so over in Canada!

Consumer Experiences with Rent-to-Own

Report finds rent-to-own transactions are an expensive way for consumers to acquire merchandise, with periodic payments typically totalling 2 to 3.5 times the price of the same goods at conventional retailers

Featured Events

Latest News

The Consumers Council of Canada has advocated recently for firm action on unsolicited, door-to-door sales, new protection for users of alternative financial services such as payday loans and definition of qualifications, with licensing, for home inspectors. The Ontario government took action in all three areas through its Putting Consumers First Act passed April 10, 2017.

The Consumers Council of Canada has advocated recently for firm action on unsolicited, door-to-door sales, new protection for users of alternative financial services such as payday loans, and definition of qualifications, with licensing, for home inspectors. The Ontario government took action in all three areas through its Putting Consumers First Act passed April 10, 2017.

Ontario's Act will:

Make it possible to ban unsolicited, door-to-door sales on prescribed household appliances such as water heaters, furnaces, air conditioners and water filters.

Offer new consumer financial protections through rules for alternative financial services such as payday loans, including extended repayment periods and more time between loans, as well expanded rules against unfair debt collection practices.

Regulate the home inspection industry through mandatory licensing and set qualifications for home inspectors, as well as minimum standards for contracts, home inspection reports, disclosures and the performance of home inspections.

"The Council has conducted research, engaged in public consultations and addressed legislators on behalf of consumers across Canada about these problem areas," said Council President Don Mercer. "We are pleased to see some other provinces addressing these issue areas as well. Some have acted already. Some are contemplating action. The Council welcomes the action taken."

Persons interested in more information about Ontario's new act should click here.

"These three measures also better position Ontario consumers as they look toward improvements to their homes in Ontario's active housing market, in which many consumers are upgrading homes after purchase," said Mercer. "Governments are encouraging consumers to make their homes more energy efficient as part of efforts to respond to climate change. Consumers should act on good information, deal with quality service providers and avoid pernicious financing schemes when upgrading their homes."

The Council is currently working to complete research entitled Incenting Energy Efficient Retrofits: Risks and Opportunities for Consumers.
This research focuses on the risks and opportunities for consumers of home energy efficiency retrofits and renovations that are driven by government and utility incentives. This study will examine how consumers benefit from incentive programs and what risks they assume when renovations or retrofits are completed. The study, expected to be released later this Spring, will examine the safeguards governments and utilities have adopted to protect consumers from renovations that are not properly executed. The Council has received funding from Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada's Contributions Program for Non-profit Consumer and Voluntary Organizations for this research. The views ultimately expressed in the final reports of this research will not necessarily be those of Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada or of the Government of Canada.

In preparing its 2016 report Consumer Experiences with Rent-to-Own, the Council conducted an examination of the rent-to-own offerings available to typical consumers. The research provided a perspective on two questions: 1) What information do rent-to-own providers deliver to potential customers prior to completing a rent-to-own transaction? 2) To what extent does this experience meet relevant provincial rules, including consumer protection rules?

Consumer Experiences in Online Payday Loans, 2015, improved the understanding of consumers' experiences when they look for payday loans online, by examining the online payday loan services available to typical Canadian consumers.

The Council's 2009 report Renovation Rip-Offs: Problems and Solutions highlighted reasons for consumer problems in the home renovation industry. It contains recommendations for consumers, business and government aimed at improving the experience with home renovations.

Council report finds Canadian consumers feel cautious about using online reviews of products and services used by other consumers, but nonetheless feel information from this source if carefully considered makes them more savvy shoppers.

Canadian consumers feel cautious about using online reviews of products and services used by other consumers, but nonetheless feel information from this source if carefully considered makes them more savvy shoppers, according to a Consumers Council of Canada research report.

Consumers appear to rely on the most unreliable method of all for judging the trustworthiness of individual consumer reviews -- 'gut feel.' However, consumers are not particularly satisfied to rely on their intuition about reviews, and believe review sites on the Internet need to do a good job of offering features that help them understand and compare reviews and reviewers, sort and sift reviews to read ones that are more or less positive, evaluate reviews and reviewers against their own needs and personal life contexts.

"When business or consumers are not honest in their reasons for writing a review they harm us all," said Consumers Council of Canada President Don Mercer. "A review does not need to be perfectly accurate to be of value to the marketplace. It does need to be honestly offered."

A variety of business models have arisen for services providing online consumer reviews, and each presents risk and benefits to consumers, depending on different potential sources of conflict of interest, which if unmanaged, can adversely affect the moderation of review content on sites, leading consumers to be misled, the research found.

Gaps in critical thinking skills or access to online consumer reviews can disadvantage some consumers, because consumers increasingly have turned to the Internet for information to support buying decisions about products and services.

Traditional sources of expert reviews, such as paid circulation magazines, appear, consumers say, to be disappearing, partly because they face competition from ‘free’ online consumer review sites. Many consumers say they favour expert reviews as part of their decision-making process. However, individual buyers sometimes find consumer reviewers who use products and services in ways similar to their own uses, leading to unique insights not provided by expert reviewers.

"Consumer online reviews, when enough of them are available and considered ahead of a purchase, can help a consumer," said Mercer. "But one review on its own should be taken with a grain of salt.

"Take care not to use a review to justify, rather than inform, a buying decision. A review may be found to fit almost any pre-conceived notion."

The research found sites that offer consumer reviews may have very different objectives in offering them, depending on how site owners define their objectives to make money.

"In some contexts, reviews, regardless of authorship, should be considered 'advertising' subject to the regulatory expectations of advertising," said Mercer. "In other cases, reviews may just be 'fair comment,' much as opinions appear in review sections or letters pages of newspapers."

Consumers have a difficult time identifying the motives and business models of review sites. The report recommends greater transparency concerning review site business models, so users can come to better-informed conclusions about a site's utility and reliability for their purpose.

The Council's report contains many more recommendations about how to improve protection of consumers in the rapidly growing online consumer reviews industry.

The Consumers Council of Canada has received funding from Innovation, Science and Economic Development’s (ISED) Contributions Program for Non-profit Consumer and Voluntary Organizations. The views expressed in the Council’s report are not necessarily those of ISED or the Government of Canada.

Advertising Standards Canada, Canada's national not-for-profit advertising self-regulatory body, has appointed its new board of directors, and a Consumers Council of Canada member and former director remains as the "public representative" on the board.
Christina Bisanz, a former director and executive director of the Council, was re-appointed. The Council, itself, is a member of Advertising Standards Canada.
Advertising Standards Canada was created by the advertising industry in 1957. ASC "was founded on the belief that advertising self-regulation best serves the interests of the industry and the public."
ASC has announced, also, the appointment of Jani Yates to the position of President and CEO of the organization effective June 13, 2016.
Outgoing ASC President and CEO Linda Nagel is to be honoured with the Association of Canadian Advertisers 2016 Gold Medal.
"The Consumers Council of Canada congratulates Christina Bisanz and Jani Yates on their appointments," said Consumers Council of Canada Aubrey LeBlanc. "The Council commends Linda Nagel for her service at ASC."
The Consumers Council of Canada has been active over the years in providing volunteer consumer representatives to the Children's Clearance Committee of ASC and, as such, is a participant in advertising self-regulation at the ASC.
The Children’s Clearance Committee is responsible for reviewing and approving children’s broadcast advertising messages to ensure compliance with the provisions of The Broadcast Code for Advertising to Children. All children’s commercials must be approved by the Children’s Committee and carry a valid ASC approval number prior to broadcast.
The Council has been active, as well, in representing consumers concerning advertising practices and other competition-related issues through semi-annual consultations with the Competition Bureau of Canada. The Council hosted a panel of consumer groups which led to a report on food advertising, labelling and advertising in 2012.
The self-regulation of children's advertising concerning food products has recently been criticized by an array of health consumer and professional organizations working together as the Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition.
Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition has asserted "self-regulation doesn't work" when it comes to managing marketing to children.
"The Council has been proud to work to protect children and all consumers within the self-regulatory environment of ASC," said LeBlanc. "The Council is open to a discussion with interested stakeholders about how it should exercise its membership at ASC. As a consumer group member of ASC, the Council is always open to reviewing the practices of any self-regulator with which it is or has been involved. It concerns our organization that the reputable members of the Stop Marketing to Kids Coalition have rebuked self-regulation."
The Council collects consumer experiences through its website. Any consumer can share their experience.
"Anyone in Canada concerned about how advertising practises have affected them as a consumer are encouraged to share with the Council online," said LeBlanc. "As a non-profit voluntary organization, the Council cannot become involved in individual consumer problems, but it will consider those problems in acting as a representative of Canada's consumers."